St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-07-09
CEYLON AS IT IS.
Extensive Ruins Of Ancient Cities-Abo-
rhymes Living in Rock Caves.

rhymes Living in Rock Caves.
At the last meeting of the Geographical
Society of Berlin Dr. F. Sarasin, of Basic,
gave a sketch of the Island of Ceylon.
During his stay of two and half
years in the island, he made nine ex-
cursons on foot in different directions
from the centre of the island The greater
| part of the island is plain, elevated but
little above the sea-level; only in the south
ern part vast mountain group, composed
| of gneiss and granite, and crowned with
rugged peaks, rises up like a gigantic wall,
and divides the island, as far as its climate is
concerned, into two parts-the west and
southwest humid, the north and east dry.
The western half participates in both the
monsoon rains, while the northeastern
part, during the southwest monsoon, which
mandates the southwestern region and the
mountains with rain, experiences almost
continually a clear sky and great drouth.
In consequence of these conditions
the whole of the southwestern half
OF the island is thickly populated
and cultivated, Astounding with cocoa
palms and rice-tields, which extend
IN the form of terraces, far up the mountain
slopes. The higher parts of the mountains
were, until within comparatively recent
times, clothed with the most luxuriant tropi-
cal forests; but since 1t was found thirty
years ago that coffee thrves here in re-
markable manner. the primeval forests have
everywhere disappeared, and the animals
living in them have been dslodged, so that
at the present time it is only in steep ravines,
and the hpIpbtS hatu-aar < -
feet where the cold storms prevent the Gull
tivation of coffee, and the government has
protected a portion of the forests from de-
strucnon, that small part of the virgin
wood remains. These gloomy gray-green
woods are very different from those of the
low plains The trees are covered with long
white lichens and gold-brown moss. Mag
nifcent rhododendrons and tree-ferns 2Ot to
30 feet high, form the chief adornment of
these high mountain forests. For the
rest, the whole mountain range was
covered with coffee plantations until
the year 1870, when they We're unfor-
tunately infected with fungus. H1fs is
the reason that to-day nearly all the coffee
plantations have vanished, and in their place
plantations of tea and cocoa have sprung
up These, however, are not so profitable
and, moreover, have already begun to be Wis
tied by disease Thus Ceylon will not in the
near future be so prosperous as in earlier
days The broad plains of the dry portion
of the island are covered with endless leafy
woods, the trees of which, as regards their
exterior, are very similar to those of
European wood, with the exception of the
leaves, which are hard and wanting in sue
culent verdure. On the banks of the rivers
are found gigantic trees from twenty-five to
sixty feet IN circumference, entwined with
climbing plants. The greater the distance
rom the rivers the sparser the vegetation,
and in the very dry district of the north,
where no rain falls for seven months. one
inds only low brushwood and prickly eu-
ohorblas, in form like chandeliers. The for
st districts are now almost uninhabited, es-
oecially in the southeast whereas formerly
hey were in parts thickly peopled. In the
lorthern districts the traveller meets with ex-
enslve ruins; large towns with temples
md palaces are to-day overgrown with for
SITS. The answer to the question, how was it
bic for these dry regions to have been so
ensely populated, is to be found in the re-
mains of the gigantic water reservoirs, which
ne Clngalese kings constructed for the cult
alton of rice fields. Some of tSDse reser-
oirs date back from the first centuries Of
ur era. When the Cingalese people re-
reated southwark before the invasions of the
outh Indian races, these immense works
ell into decay and became the home of the
rocodile. The attempts of the English
overnment to encourage rice culture by
tilizing the old reservoirs, and to make
eylon, as regards its supply of rice, indie
endent of India, have up to the present
me been attended with but little success In
cad of human beings the animal world has
ken possession of these vast soitudes The
ephant, the wild buffalo, the wild boar, the
ear and the great troops of monkeys people
| immense numbers this region. Although
the larger towns, such as Handy, Co
mbo, &c, the population is very mixed,
the country districts it is strongly
vided. North and east of the great
rest-belt the Tamils live, west and south
the same the Cingalese, while in the
GODS themselves dwell the aboriginal
habitants, the Veddas. The pure Veddas
wv scarcely number 1000, and disease is
pldly thinning their ranks, so that in fifty
hundred years not single pure example
this ancient race will in all probability
list. They have recently been settled by
e government in small colonies, until quite
Gently, however, they lived in hollows of
e rocks; the chase was their only occupa-
N and leaves their only clothing They
d not even learnt to use stone for pointing
cir arrows. They hunted chiefly MONKEYS
d devoted themselves to fishing. They
? very low in the scale of civilization and
We hardly any wants. Their appearance
npares in remarkable manner with that
the Australian negroes